


The Perils of Dark Magic

by his_valentine



Series: Golden Boy [1]
Category: The Dragon Prince (Cartoon)
Genre: Book One Novel Spoilers, Gen, Pre-Series
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2020-06-20
Updated: 2020-06-20
Packaged: 2021-03-04 00:13:59
Rating: Mature
Warnings: Underage
Chapters: 1
Words: 2,786
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/24814390
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/his_valentine/pseuds/his_valentine
Summary: dedicated to/requested by a friend
Relationships: Viren/Lissa (The Dragon Prince)
Series: Golden Boy [1]
Series URL: https://archiveofourown.org/series/1630816
Comments: 7
Kudos: 18





	The Perils of Dark Magic

**Author's Note:**

> dedicated to/requested by a friend

Lissa had claimed it was natural, just common sibling rivalry that they'll grow out of. Being an only child, it's something that Viren didn't have experience with, so he tried to understand. Tried not to read too much into it as his son swatted at his baby sister to snatch away the toy she'd been holding onto, then laughed at the sound of her wails.

Soren didn't even want to play with it. After she was done crying he wandered away, dropping it thoughtlessly. Viren ended up having to replace one of the doll's eyes because it had cracked against the wooden floor. Claudia watched him with a keen gaze as he did. She's observant like that, he's noticed. Observant like himself.

He kept noticing these things throughout the years. Soren is a… bully, to put it politely, and because of her constant proximity to him Claudia bore the brunt of that aggression. It made family time with them feel like waiting for an unseen countdown, with Viren carefully watching for the moment Soren looked at her with that spark in his eyes that he would get just before he pushed her over. The only time he gave her a break, it seemed, was when he was down with a fever.

Once Claudia is old enough to gain a sense of individuality, she insisted on growing her hair out as long as she can. Soren also developed his own awareness, though not in a productive direction. He started to wait until Mom and Dad weren't watching before he went after his sister. Viren felt his first flash of outrage directed at the boy the first time Claudia came to him in tears, her long black hair in tangles. She told him that Soren had been pulling on it.

He spoke to Soren about it, which is startlingly unproductive. First the boy lied to him outright, saying that he'd never done that. Once it became clear that Viren wouldn't believe him, he switched to a story where Claudia had apparently started it.

"Even so," Viren tried to explain, "that's no reason to hurt her. You're her older brother. You're supposed to take care of her. Protect her." It seemed to simply go in one ear and out the other. Not for the first time, Viren wondered about his son's intelligence. He's more brawn than brains, his mother's son through and through even at such a young age. Talking to him about his behavior doesn't seem to work.

Yelling worked, for a while. So did redirecting his energy by sending him to begin unofficially training with the Crownguard. Eight is two years younger than they usually considered, but an exception is made when they watched the ease with which he completed the obstacle course that boys much older would fail. He could prove useful in the field someday, they all agreed. Even Harrow congratulated him on Soren's accomplishment. Viren's just happy that he'd be tired when he came home, figuring that the bruises are from him overexerting himself.

Lissa is less than thrilled. She thought Soren was too young, that he could get seriously injured just from training. The bouts of illness he picked up occasionally only deepened his mother's concern.

Viren tried to explain how he thought it helped, but then she implied that he just wanted him out of the way. That Soren annoyed him, being so energetic. He denied it at the time, at the top of his lungs, and then suddenly she had begun yelling back. Apparently, Soren had gone to her after what he referred to as his father's 'freak-outs,' crying what was probably crocodile tears.

She ended up hitting him. It's actually not the first time, but it's been a long time- she hadn't done it since before she had Soren. He reeled from the blow, because she's strong. That just made him frustrated. He didn't regret it until they both heard an unmistakable gasp.

"Claudia," he winced. She liked to hide in the curtains, liked to watch people who didn't know she was there.

"You're not 'sposed to hit," she grumbled, trying to decide whether to be angry or sad. Either way, she ended up glaring at her mother before she turned and stalked away, back to her bedroom.

"Viren," Lissa gasped. She offered to help him up but he pointedly stood on his own.

Later, Claudia confessed that she'd wished she could do something to stop her mother from hitting him, if she saw it happen again. So he taught her a little spell, just a small bolt. It was fairly safe, for magic anyway, only capable of causing a small zap.

He made her promise not to show anybody. She cried when he made her small hands crush the tiny sparking winged scorpion while it was alive, so he didn't expect her to use it on her own anyway.

Soren's startled yelp rang through the dining hall the very next day. "Claudia zapped me somehow!" he shouted, his fork still zinging.

"Don't steal my food!!" she yelled at him. He made a motion like he was going to do it again until she started to say once more, "Tl-!" and then, he actually recoiled. Went back to eating from his own plate, though he glared pointedly at her as he did.

She smirked. Viren did too, until he caught their mother glaring at him.

"Where did she learn that?" Lissa asked.

"You already know," he told her dryly.

They argued about it later, in their room. They didn't expect it to reach very far outside of their door, though it inadvertently did. They started arguing more and more, and the distance between them grew.

Claudia, meanwhile, came to him to learn more. He lied about it to their mother, and this time she was smart enough not to showcase her abilities in public. He noted with satisfaction that Soren stopped the worst of his behavior, however, and if she made certain movements common to spellcasting he would flinch.

Then she came to him in tears again. "Soren says mages always die young!" she cried. "He says if I keep doing magic so much, I'll get sick and ugly before I even grow up! That nobody will ever l-love me!" she managed to get out that last statement before she began bawling.

"I'll talk to him," Viren promised, with intent.

* * *

Viren caught him just outside of training, right before he had disappeared into the barracks.

"I need to speak to you," Viren said. Soren nodded and went to get ready, doff his practice armor and go change into something more casual.

He arrived at his father's office later. It looked like Viren had been awaiting his arrival. "Father?" he asked.

"Sit," Viren said in a low tone, motioning to a chair. Soren quieted and went to go sit.

"Wha-" Soren began, but then suddenly Viren turned to him and began casting. He felt the way his lungs deflated, pulling out his breath in a glowing orb of light. He tried to grab it, but missed. Viren held his son's breath in the palm of his hand as he cleared his own throat, preparing to speak.

"Whatever you've said to Claudia, you will apologize for it. Becoming a mage is an honor, and I won't have you dissuading her from her talents." He thought about how old he himself was when he learned his first spell, and how much more powerful his daughter already was at half the age. He can see panic in Soren's purpling expression as he stared at the light in Viren's palm. "Nod if you understand."

Soren nodded swiftly and jerkily. Then he pointed to his throat and made gasping motions, looking like a fish out of water. Viren glanced to the orb of breath he still hadn't released, then frowned back at Soren. "Very well."

He released roughly half of the light, which flew to Soren as he gratefully gasped it in. He breathed in a few times, chest shuddering and heaving. Then his focus returned to his father and he scowled, leaning forward. His mouth fell open like he was yelling, but no sound came out. As soon as he noticed that Soren sat back and put a hand to his own throat once more. He tried to speak, but just made a few wispy noises with his breath.

"This is not a debate," Viren explained. "This is an ultimatum. You will show respect to your sister's endeavors, or the next time I take this I will keep it," his hand tightened around Soren's voice. "I'll also pull you out of training. Do you want that?"

Soren paled as he shook his head. Training was straightforward and physical, things that he excelled at. And the idea of not being able to speak at all for an extended period of time frightened him almost as much as the earlier choking sensation had.

"Additionally," Viren continued, "your mother is not to hear a word of this. You've been crying to her, haven't you? That stops now. If you're old enough to hurt Claudia the way you have, you're old enough to accept the consequences of your actions without complaint. It's time for you to grow up."

Soren nodded rapidly to show that he agreed with what Viren was saying, if only to get back the orb of light that his father held.

Viren released the orb, and Soren gulped it down thankfully. Then he burst out crying, so hard that he ultimately threw up in his father's office. Viren was tempted to make him clean up the mess, but ended up taking pity on the boy as he tried to gasp out apologies between the continued sobs, and simply sent him to bed.

* * *

There's almost a sense of respite that came over Viren when Soren first grew sick after that, too easily fatigued to chase after his sister with ill intent. Then it lengthened, and it worsened. Within weeks they're at his bedside, watching the physician as he shook his head at a loss. Soren had always been pale, but he'd lost the normal healthy glow beneath.

Claudia, bless her tiny heart, refused to leave Soren's side. Whenever he was awake, she entertained him by casting spells. Lissa caught them once while they're having a tea party where the tea sets chatter just as much as they are, thanks to one of Claudia's enchantments. Despite her misgivings about the girl having learned magic so early in life, she has to admit that it's pretty cute.

In return, Soren regaled her (and the enchanted objects) with stories that he made up, all on his own. Unable to run around and play as he had been, his overactive nature had transferred to his imagination.

Meanwhile, Viren poured through not only the Castle's great library, but his own personal selection of tomes for anything that could solve his family's dilemma. Finally he came across the details for especially macabre rituals of dark magic, archaic spells intended to simply steal- or with some minor adjustments, transfer- the life force potential from the magical to the mundane.

Viren sequestered himself away, and before long had made the proper changes to the spell, testing it on small animals first to be sure it worked.

As luck would have it, he barely needed to even wonder where he'll find an elf when one is literally delivered to Katolis. A young tidebound, about as old as Soren, is washed up ashore, apparently cut off from its pod. Harrow wants to let it go, and Viren can understand why- its disorientation and fear is genuine, palpable in fact, when they question it of its intentions.

Instead of having it released back into the ocean, though, Viren directed the men to have the elf put into the dungeons. He has it splashed with buckets of water on a regular basis to ensure that the specimen is completely healthy when the time comes.

That night, for the first time since Soren had stopped waking up at all, Viren went to see him. He barely recognized his son for how deathly thin and gaunt he is. When he lifted the young boy, it's far too easy. Without alerting the nurses, Viren slipped back out with Soren cradled in his arms, and brought him to the dungeon as well.

The spell is old and barbaric, holding its power in its simplicity. The elf began to shriek in terror as it happened, which made it harder. But Viren's focus on saving his son made it easy to do exactly what he'd already done with the sludgenewts and the mice.

He pulled the life force from the elf and held it in his own body briefly. The rushing sensation of too much power ripped through him, threatening to tear him asunder, and he knew without a doubt that this was the strongest spell he had ever done. Hopefully, it would be enough.

Carefully, Viren poured the energy into Soren's frail, slow-breathing body. His heart leapt when he first saw Soren inhale more steadily, though he didn't awaken fully just yet. Viren kept the influx slow and constant, so as to not overwhelm his son.

Just as the last tendrils of energy transferred, Soren gasped again, more sharply, and jerked awake. He blinked, looked up at who was holding him… "Dad? Is that you…?"

"My son," Viren breathed, holding him close. He turned, just slightly, to keep Soren's back turned on the crumpled, drained remains of the sacrifice they'd made.

"Why do you look like that? What happened?" Soren lifted his hand as if to touch Viren's face, but paused and ultimately recoiled just before he made contact.

"You were sick, but you're better now. That's all that matters," Viren murmured, amazed by his own ability as he watched the color rapidly return to Soren's lips and cheeks. He'd done that. The physician had written Soren off as a lost cause, but now- now he was well enough to begin shivering in the cold of the dungeon. Viren didn't put him down until he was putting Soren to bed, in the boy's own room as it should be.

He went to go brush Soren's hair off his forehead when he noticed the complexion of his own hands. Viren brought both of his hands up, turning them over as he stared at the ashen skin, the prominent dark veins. He touched his face, finding the texture strange, rougher than before.

"You look different," Soren pointed out again. Viren had heard of this, though generally it happened to much older dark mages and usually was a more gradual process. His natural sense of curiosity made it almost more interesting than alarming.

"Yes," Viren said, "that seems to be the case."

"Where's Mom and Claudia?" Soren finally thought to ask.

"It's late, but I don't think they'll mind if you go see them, under these circumstances," Viren informed him, which was uncharacteristically permissive of him. Soren was still a little weak when he got up, but his enthusiasm made up for it as he bounded out the room. While he did that, Viren found a mirror and looked at himself.

He heard the sounds of both Lissa and Claudia joy-crying in the hallway as they discovered that Soren had miraculously gotten better. But all he can think about is his hope that they would have the same enthusiasm for his new… look.

Unfortunately, they all went quiet when Viren emerged from Soren's room to join them. Claudia looked nervous and uncertain as she took in her father's new appearance. Lissa, meanwhile, narrowed her eyes at him suspiciously. "What have you done?" she asked, already accusatory.

Before Viren can formulate a response, Soren cheerfully told her, "Dad healed me! I'm all better now. Kinda hungry, though."

"Can we have breakfast now?" Claudia asked once he brought it up, "That's Soren's favorite. He told me when he was sick." Lissa's attention dropped back down to her children, as they gathered around her legs and asked for food.

"You both have to go to bed after you eat," she told them as she was beginning to herd them in the direction of the kitchen. Viren went to follow, smiling softly at the sight of his family back together again…

Lissa turned her head to him and told him, rather quickly, "Don't. Go rest, it looks like you've been… busy with your magic. I'll talk to you about this later," Viren's step paused, as he discovered that he intently disliked the way his wife was glaring at him right now over her shoulder. It seemed somehow deeper than previous times.


End file.
